Roku hears voices; iPhone sales may ease; DJ Khaled’s weighty move

Chronicle Staff and News Services

Published 2:02 pm, Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Roku’s way with words

Roku plans to add a voice-controlled digital assistant to its streaming TV players in an attempt to catch up with Google, Apple and Amazon. Roku’s voice capabilities are currently limited to performing search requests and launching apps. The Los Gatos company’s updated assistant will be able to field broader requests about video, music and other tasks tied to entertainment. Still, that’s a much narrower scope than Google’s Assistant, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, which can perform tasks and control appliances that have nothing do with entertainment.

That’s how many fewer people might upgrade iPhones this year because Apple is cutting the price of battery replacement, according to Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz. The Cupertino company cut the price after acknowledging that it intentionally slows iPhones with older batteries to prevent the handsets abruptly shutting down. While analysts agree it was a good public-relations move, some are concerned it will dent sales of iPhones, which account for roughly two-thirds of Apple’s revenue.

All he’ll do is lose lose lose

Producer and recording artist DJ Khaled will represent Weight Watchers to millions of follows on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The choice of DJ Khaled, whose Rihanna-featuring “Wild Thoughts” was one of 2017’s biggest hits, drew praise from big shareholder and sometimes-spokeswoman Oprah Winfrey and sent the stock up more than 6 percent this week.